Waiting on Letters From Home

Ok, I don't live in Chicago and I'm not deployed, but getting letters from friends in boot camp (and sending them) is pretty awesome. I've now gotten 3 from Theo and I've only sent her 1! So to up the ante, I wrote two separate letters and am mailing them together! I don't know if she'll get them in time for graduation or not (this Friday I think), but either way she'll get them eventually and when she does she'll love them. I love her letters because I can see how she's changed since being in the Navy and how she's still the same person all rolled into one. She wrote a little bit about boot camp, but since my brother went through I know what's going on and she was tired of talking about it anyway so I got to hear about other stuff that's going on. She brings up some really interesting points about not "standing out" because getting noticed typically gets you the kind of attention you don't want.

She's having a difficult time reconciling her upbringing of "it doesn't matter what you look like", "don't judge people by how they look", "don't worry about what other people think of you, be yourself" with this Navy (and probably all military branches) attitude of joining the ranks and becoming part of the masses. No individualism. No standing out. Just complete assimilation. She knew that assimilation to Navy life is part of the deal you make, but she doesn't want to betray herself or the parts of her identity associated with being unique. I hope whenever she does get my response she can find it somewhat comforting. I think you can be yourself while still putting things aside to get the job done. I think in a survival situation, whether it's literally life-and-death or just working to put food on the table, everyone can agree that you do what you need to in order to get through the day. It's not a betrayal of self if you're doing something you don't normally agree with. I tell my students all the time, "You aren't required to like it, but you are required to do it" and I think the same goes for things like being in a situation that you aren't normally put in. So even if you don't 100% agree with what's going on, if it's to get a job done, if it's to accomplish something for the greater good--even if it's just your greater good like completing boot camp or A-school--you don't have to like it, you just do it. There's something really liberating in knowing that you aren't required to like what you're doing or what's going on. Granted, if you're stuck in the same rut you were in 10 years ago, I could see that getting old and this advice not really working, but for getting through obstacles immediately in front of you, it totally feels good to remember that you just have to do it, not like it.

Happy Curtains

Ikea was awesome today. We brought our floor plans with us and got everything figured out! We're going to end up spending a near fortune (or about as much as our sofa is going to cost lol) there when all is said and done, but it's going to be so worth it to have an awesome, non-hand-me-down house with plenty of storage :) After Ikea, we headed over to the house because I had picked out some magnetic strips to store knives and I wanted to put them up. Turns out, and they DO NOT say this on the outside of the package anywhere, they don't come with any type of mounting hardware. Super lame. We didn't find that out until we were at the house and had opened the package. Dan will pick something up tomorrow while he's waiting for the electrician to call/come over. In the meantime, I did switch out the curtains in the kitchen to my set and they look awesome!

I'm also a super huge dork and had fun with the new TV, my computer, and a VGA cable XD The new TV has all kinds of inputs on the back and basically will let me use it as a second monitor. I totally tried it out and watched CSI this morning before Baptism Prep and then when Dan got up we watched the episode of Bones we missed this past week. The sound still comes out of the computer speakers, but if you're not moving around or anything the volume is just fine. I tried to turn my computer around and face the TV and take a picture with the webcam, but it wouldn't let me :-/ Well, I just tried on Facebook, I didn't actually try with PhotoBooth.

Designer At Heart

I have been so excited to pick out paint colors, flooring, and now furniture for the new house! I think I might have been an interior designer in a previous life. We ended up deciding on a sectional because a Chair and 1/2 + a sofa/love-seat wouldn't have fit. Today we went to the house and measured the rooms for a layout and then went back to Value City to see the furniture we liked and get those measurements (they are very handy on the back of the price tags). The best use of space in our case would be the sectional seen above, a sofa + a love-seat. We decided not to do an ottoman and get a coffee table instead. Because the arms of the couch are so high (a feature we LOVE), side tables would be awkward to access (about as awkward as "awkward" is to type) and we eat/drink in front of the TV on a regular basis, so a place to hold our cups is a necessity.

Once we got home and we were looking at our layouts with possible furniture in them, we also took a look at the bedroom and what we want to do in there. Our bed frame is from Ikea (love that place) so the dimensions were already online (yay). Since there are no closets, we have to get creative with clothes storage. Ikea has really cool customizable wardrobe pieces where you buy the shell and put whatever you what inside, you could do all racks for hanging clothes or half racks and half shelves. They even have a thing on their website (which broke halfway through yesterday) that lets you design your wardrobe and then print out a list of everything you'll need to make it happen.

I've been all over the Ikea website for the last two weekends, I pretty much have it down for what I want to get, but I need to see it all in person. Tomorrow, after Baptism Class and Mass, we'll be heading up to Ikea to check all this stuff out. I can't wait to get in the store, I haven't been in a long time!

The weekend is here!

Today was a Professional Development day at school. The kids got the day off and the teachers and staff got to come in casual clothes! All around, not too bad. We had a speaker come in and talk on using technology to engage the kids. Our table had the most fun and laughed a lot, usually about something completely off topic ;) When I got home, I had another package waiting for me! This package was from one of our aunts in North Carolina.

My Sister-in-Love Jackie looooves her Moby Wrap and I'm all about wearing the baby, so this was awesome to receive! I picked out one in black so that in the rare instance Dan might want to use it (we'll also get a Bjorn carrier or some other front/back pack type of thing), it's not a girly color or pattern. I'm so excited because you can also nurse discreetly in it without moving baby around that much!

I'm so glad it's Friday, this week seemed to drag on. Only two more full weeks of school and then we have Spring Break! Everything with the house is coming together, Dan finished painting today and we made a trip out to Home Depot to look at flooring. The electrician also called Dan and will be coming to the house Monday or Tuesday to give an estimate. While we were out, we also stopped in Value City Furniture to look at living room ideas. We've been using my parents hand-me-down futon for a sofa and I'm ready to get rid of it and get something that's ours. I've been talking about "my chair" for a while now too, a super comfy chair for the baby's room that I can use for nursing. Dan is insistent that he get his "Daddy Chair" and is totally fine with keeping it in the living room and sharing it. We found that we love the "Chair and 1/2" idea (extra wide arm chair) combined with an over-sized ottoman and matching couch or love seat better than a large sectional couch. Considering the small size of our living room, a sectional is pretty much out of the question.

Stoney Creek is on The Rise

I am once again having issues getting pictures to this blog, except (for once) it's not Blogger's fault. This time, the Bluetooth connection between my computer and phone is completely failing. I just wanted to get 2 pictures off and only got 1 before the connection just stopped working completely. At least it was the better of the two pictures. We got our first present from our baby registry from Ms. Karen! The second picture would have showed how UPS or FedEx left the box in a plastic bag (it's been raining cats and dogs ALL DAY), but with the open end up so all the water could pool at the bottom of the box. Thankfully, as you can see by the picture, the Boppy comes in a nice heavy plastic bag of its own, so no harm done! Thank goodness it's warm out because otherwise all this rain would have been a blizzard! I drove by Stoney Creek on my way home from work and it was the highest I've ever seen it! There were parts of the peer by the Stoney Creek Inn that were nearly underwater!

Today was the last day of classes this week! We have a "professional development" day tomorrow but that translates into "Teacher Dress Down Day" and that's ok by me. Today my classes were crazy, except the last one. Normally I have the 7th and 8th grade boys at the same time, but 8th Grade had a Travel Fair for their Geography class and I only had the 5 7th grade boys (there are 6 but one is on vacation). It was actually really nice to sit down and work with them on their video projects and have a really chill last class of the day. And then I came home to a surprise package (the picture for today) and that was super awesome. I love surprise packages and I haven't been obsessively checking my registry to see if anybody bought anything so I was completely surprised. I then went and checked the registry to make sure that the Boppy got counted as purchased and saw that someone else bought something too! Amazon keeps track of who bought what off your baby registry so you can send thank you cards. How cool is that for them keep it all organized for you!

Pregnancy in Haiku

Month Seven:
I'm a nice person
But if you touch my belly
One more time, watch out

More paint, this time with the trim! I can't wait until it's done and I can go see it in person...once the fumes have dissipated.

Dan's thoughts on the paint, "When we left yesterday, the paint looked like a 5 year-old did it. Today when we went back and it was dry, the walls actually looked kind of ok."

I told him I didn't care about the quality of the work (well I do a little bit, but they're staying "in the lines" so it's fine), I just need some color on my walls! We're headed back to Home Depot this weekend to look at flooring (I don't think we'll be ordering any yet though) and we also need to get an electrician out to give us a price quote for the work we need done and get that started. I am headed to the house tomorrow to see the paint and show off the new pad to a friend :)

Painting!

I'm not allowed to be around the paint fumes, so I didn't get to take these pictures. Dan sent me updates on the painting progress and I can't wait to see the house when it's done! They put the first coat on today, a second coat is coming soon and after that the new floor goes down.

I'm so excited to have a house and decorate (or have Dan and friends do the decorating) it however I want :)